Anna, 2017

Zora Mann, Anna, 2017. Acrylic and oil on canvas; 200 × 130 cm.

Playing on a palindrome, Anna is an homage to the artist’s stepfather’s mother, who died a year before she made these two paintings. They work as a double portrait, the dark one being the shadow or flip-side of the other. The pattern they are made of pushes out to the sides and could continue beyond the confines of the canvas. The grid refers to the the permeability or porousness of being and gives view to another plane laying underneath; the social worldly elements of cigarettes and straws underline the human aspect also connecting the inside to the outside.